My daughters saga never ends. She has mysterious outbreaks on her hands sometimes after eating. She has really sensitive skin and eczema so I know that it may bother her at times. The past few times she's had foods with a tomato sauce in them, she's really turned very red on her hands and gotten small hives (but that may be because she scratches her hands).

I'm not sure if it's an allergy or just the acidity bothering her hands, but worry with her past history of reactions I worry. Last nigth after pasta and sauce, her hands got quite red and swollen and she was scratching her chest and face as well. I'll be quite happy when the fingerfeeding stage is over and she doesn't get everything she eats on her hands, maybe her eczema will clear up. My issue with last night, is there were hives in more places than her hands - although she was scratching her face and chest as well, which could have brought out the hives, or she was scratching because of the hives. I gave her benadryl and had to hold her tightly for about 15 minutes until it kicked in because she was scracthing so hard she made herself bleed, and I felt horrible doing it, the whole time she was screaming like mad. I have an appointment with an allergist in may (her regular 18 month checkup) but was wondering if you think this kind of reaction sounds more like a sensitive skin issue or an allergy and should I avoid tomato until then? I will definately ask them to add tomato to the skin test to see then, but i'm at a loss, she can't eat much already, she survives on grains, fruits and chicken for the most part.. I keep thinking she's going to starve or have malnutrition.

Hi Cauger, I'm sorry to hear your daughter, and you, are going through such a tough time. Our son, in addition to his other multiple food allergies, used to react to tomatoes as well (and oranges, grapes, etc.). He couldn't eat tomato sauce of any sort. I would brush oil on our homemade pizza crust, and put toppings on it that he could eat, and we didn't eat any pasta with tomato sauce. I thought it would last forever, but when he was around 3 or so, he outgrew the tomato allergy. He then was able to tolerate some orange and some grapes. He now has problems with other fruits (apples, pears, cherries, watermelon and pineapple), but he can now eat tomatoes, oranges and grapes! I hope your daughter outgrows her reaction to tomato. Take care.

Our son had the exact same reactions to tomatoes/ketchup/pizza sauce/orange juice etc.. Our allergist wasn't too concerned as these were contact reactions. Like your daughter it many times took benadryl to take away the rash and any hives which would appear (usually not too many). The more he'd scratch the more he'd spread the food which was causing the skin reaction to start with.
Our allergist suggested to stick to straws and sippy cups to avoid contact as much as possible with his skin. If something was to dribble down his neck or get on his face to wipe it off with a warm damp towel ASAP. He has had less irritation on his hands now that he is using a spoon/fork more. Hopefully when your little one isn't eating with her fingers it will help also.

My fingers are crossed that it is nothing more than a contact reaction. I think you are smart to avoid tomatoes for now though.
Don't forget to write down what you want to ask the allergist at your next appt.. I always thought I'd remember and then as I am walking out remember the one thing I really wanted to have checked/ask. I have a notepad and take it with me now with point form of the questions of concerns I have for that visit.

My son is in the same boat. He has had eczema almost since he was born and would have flare ups all the time - basically any food he would eat unless it was dry would cause rashing on his fingers and his face. At 14 months we discovered he was anaphylactic to sesame and at 20 months the allergist did the basic test package of all the major allergens plus tomotoes, oranges and strawberries. We added eggs and tree nuts to his list but the others turned out to be contact reactions (hives were not involved).

This is basically what we do on a regular basis (though the number of times are reducing as he ages). He tells me he is itchy while he is eating. I stare at his hands and face. I mentally review what he is eating and reread the preproofed list of ingredients. If it persists I give him benadryl (as foods have been safe 99% of the time but for 2 traces of egg slip ups - not anaphylactic to eggs) and we watched to see if the redness subsides. I find the eczema usually stays red even past the benadryl.

Sometimes we randomly have eczema and non eating times and sometimes we have hives outside of meals (maybe things that have been touched).

This is where the challenge arises: you have to be 100% comfortable over who is watching your child at any time and that they can help to distinguish between when your child is itchy from eczema versus itchy from food allergies. Meal time takes patience and understanding. He is still young and hopefully will begin to better verbalize the different types of itchiness over time - always err on the side of caution.

For your amusement: his toys were having an argument: "you have eczema", "no you have eczema", "no you have hives"!

If any one has any experience with these problems in the school age child I'd love to hear about it...especially explaining it to teachers and how extra vigilance is needed

Yeah, I have a mental checklist for medications, and when I was going to the hospital to have my second child, I had to be really sure that I had left a hardcopy of that mental list with my sister (who was watching over her). I had a huge list of location of redness with or without presence of hives and level of discomfort experienced to determine the dose of benadryl that she would get, symptoms to ignore (like just red hands that aren;t bothering her) and symptoms that require immediate treatment. I guess it's harder because we chose NOT to remove all her allergens from the house, because I like eating my food on occasion as well, though now it's mostly after she goes to bed (or regular milk in cereal, I can't get past that soy milk mental block). If I had used an epi-pen everytime she had hives on her face, I'd be broke right now, even though it's mostly paid for by insurance! I can't wait until she's saying more than mama, dada and bye bye (buh-buh), i'd love her to be able to explain exaclty how it feels so I can treat accordingly. I'm hoping that it will help the schools adapt and treat her according to her symptoms.

We were recently prescribed a stronger cortisone cream for the eczema, which seems to be helping quite a greta deal, her hands are almost perfect, though it's pretty strong, so I'm not supposed to use it all the time, but I can't stand to see her dig at herelf so badly until she's bleeding on her hands, wrists, elbows and ankles.. I hope our second doesn't develop these problems!

What you have both just described Ginger and Cauger is the same for us when dealing with our son. The good news is that once we hit the almost 2 1/2 mark he is slowly able to try something new and not break out in rash/hives and start itching, he'd each time have enough of a reaction it wouldn't get worse but only benadryl would end up clearing him up. Even if something was 100% allergen free he would break out, foods meats, veggies, lotions anything. Our allergist even had us do oral challenges for some of these item he was reacting to (non allergens) just to see for himself. In the past 2 months the 'silly' reactions are easing. He is 31 months now, hopefully his body is becoming more used to different substances. The communication issue has been a huge dilema for us also. He only started talking since Feb. since his ear tubes so even though he is 2 1/2 we have had no way to verbalize with him.
It's not nice to know other kids go through this but nice to know I am not alone on this one. I think our son is going to need therapy from all the intense staring at him we do when he is eating.

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